Raging Bulls - Story of the Countach Vol. 2 - Issue N. 7 #RagingBulls

In 1971 Lamborghini presented the stunning Countach LP500 prototype.
Three years later, in 1974, the Countach entered production as the LP400.
In the following years, Canadian billionaire Walter Wolf modified three LP400s and his modifications would later give birth to the improved LP400 S version, built in three distinct series.
The LP400 S went out of production in 1982, with a total of 237 cars made. That same year, a further improved version of the Countach would take its place.

A new rival

One of the reasons that prompted Lamborghini to develop a new bersion of the Countach was the arrival of the Ferrari 512 BBi, which was faster than the LP400 S.

At first, Lamborghini tried a turbocharged version of the 4.0-litre V12 engine, but due to cooling issues this idea was abandoned early during development. Another option was tried out, but in the end it was decided that the best solution would be to increase the engine’s displacement.

The new 5.0-litre Countach arrives

The brand new Lamborghini Countach LP500 S (also sometimes referred to as the LP5000 S) was unveiled at the 1982 Geneva Motor Show.

It mounted a bigger version of the Lamborghini V12 engine which, thanks to increased bore and stroke, had its displacement enlarged to 4754 cm³. Other changes made to the engine included redesigned combustion chambers, lowered compression ratio, revised cams and larger Weber side drought carburettors.

The new 4.8-litre engine needed about as much air as the previous 4.0-litre version, so the air inlets on the car’s body remained identical.

Lamborghini claimed that the LP500 S made 375 bhp at 7000 rpm, about as much as the original LP400; Torque was listed at 302 lb/ft at 4500 rpm.
Top speed was claimed to be 293 km/h (182 mph) and the car could launch from 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) in 5.2 s.

The LP500 S weighed 1480 kg (3285 lbs), about 280 kg heavier than the LP400 S.

On the outside, the LP500 S was pretty much identical to the previous version, with only a few minor changes to the front-mounted side indicators.

Naturally, the inscription on the tail panel changed; on earlier models it said ‘500’, whereas on later ones it said ‘5000’. This might cause confusion with the later 5000 QV model.

A much less visible change was the use of OZ aluminum-alloy wheels instead of the magnesium Campagnolo ones used on the previous models. These OZ rims were slightly heavier but retained the same design as the Campagnolo.

The LP500 S was sold alongside the older LP400 S for a short time, though the latter would soon go out of production due to very low demand.
The LP500 S was sold all the way to 1985, when it was replaced by the new 5000 QV, and during that time it outsold the previous LP400 S model, with a total of 321 units made, thus becoming the best-selling Countach so far.

Below, an image gallery of a 1982 Lamborghini Countach LP 5000S (Credit: Classic Driver) and a video (Credit: EverydayDriver), where you’ll be able to listen to the LP’s beautiful sound:

Ferrari steps up the game

In 1984 the Ferrari 512 BBi, the car that prompted the development of the Countach LP500 S, went out of production and Ferrari announced the new Testarossa. This prompted Lamborghini to further improve the Countach, in order not to fall behind in terms of performance.

Four valves per cylinder

The new version of the Countach, the 5000 Quattrovalvole (5000 QV for short), was unveiled at the 1985 Geneva Motor Show.

The Quattrovalvole had an improved V12, with a displacement increased to 5167 cm³ by enlarging the stroke to 75 mm, with a compression ratio of 9.5:1, For the first time on the Countach, downdraft Weber carburetors were also used; Previously, the carburetors were mounted on the sides of the engine, but on the QV they were moved on top for better cooling.

Most importantly, though, it was given 4 valves per cylinder, hence the name Quattrovalvole.

The new Weber carburetors, however, couldn’t fit under the Countach’s engine cover; This led to the creation a large hump in the middle of the engine cover, which worsened the Countach’s already poor rear visibility and became the QV’s most distinguishing feature from the LP500 S.

Another change were the front tires, which became a little larger and therefore the suspension was altered to suit.

The rear tires were still the massive 345/35-15 Pirelli P7‘s, which were actually created especially for the Countach, just like the four-piston brake calipers which ATE made exclusively for this Lamborghini. On the inside nothing much changed, only by now air-conditioning was usually installed.
Some body panels were also replaced by Kevlar.

According to formel Lamborghini test driver Valentino Balboni, the test engine could easily deliver 470 hp at 7000 rpm, or even 500 with a well-optimized engine, but the factory claimed only 455 hp to have a ‘trump card’ in case the new Ferrari Testarossa proved to be more powerful; the Testarossa, however, was later revealed to have ‘just’ 390 hp, so the factory decided not to change the official data.

The Federalized Countach

Along with the introduction of the 5000 QV in 1985, a U.S.-spec model was produced by the factory in order to meet United States federal safety and emissions standards.

The US models are easily distingiushable thanks to (or rather, because of) their bulkier and more robust safety bumpers, which were fitted by the factory as the vehicle did not meet the American safety crash standards, although many owners removed them immediately or received their new cars without bumpers installed, since their bulky appearance ruined the otherwise smooth body lines.

Another difference of the US models is the replacement of the Weber carburetors with a new Bosch KE-Jetronic fuel injection in order to meet demands by the DOT and EPA regulations.

Two optionals

Only two optional extras were available: a US$5,500 aerodynamic wing and a US$7,500 sound system.
The wing, however, only added drag and lowered the top speed, regardless almost all QVs were ordered with the wing installed.

Last update

In 1987 the QV was equipped with showy side skirts that, connecting to the base the two large wheel arches, also had an air vent with horizontal blades in order to facilitate the cooling of the rear brake discs. The interior was now equipped with central-locking, modified heater controls and much improved ventilation.

The QV went out of production in 1988 and was replaced by the 25th Anniversary. 631 were made in total, nearly twice as much as the previous LP500 S.

Many Lamborghini enthusiasts consider the pre-1987 QVs to be the best looking Countach ever, and also the most powerful one.

Below, an image gallery of a 1986 Lamborghini Countach 5000 Quattrovalvole (Credit: Mad4Wheels) and a video featuring former Lamborghini test driver Valentino Balboni driving a QV made specially for the CEO of Lamborghini at the time, Patrick Mimran (Credit: Benjamin Bertucci):

The Evolution of the Countach

In 1987 Lamborghini built a one-off prototype known as the Countach Evoluzione.

The Evoluzione was created by Lamborghini’s newly formed Composites Division, under direction by none other than Horacio Pagani himself, who had been hired by Lamborghini in 1982, in order to test multiple technologies for the Countach’s successor.

Pagani had tried to convince the management to buy an autoclave, necessary to make the carbonfibre parts, but the management denied his request, replying that “Ferrari doesn’t have one, so we don’t need it”, though he later got one by paying it personally thanks to a bank loan.

The Evoluzione used a substantially different chassis and body than the production Countach and lacked interior trim, soundproofing and air-conditioning. It was continually modified for testing purposes and all body panels were left unpainted.

However, despite the fact that the Evoluzione was built on an all-new chassis, various components such as the engine, suspension and wheels were taken directly from the 5000 QV, though they all got modified or replaced during testing. Originally, the wheels had aerodynamic composite disc covers applied to them, however it was found out that these didn’t allow enough cooling for the brakes, causing heat build-up and brake fade, so they were removed.

The cockpit, including the floor and roof panels, the central transmission tunnel, the door sills and the front and rear bulkheads were all made in one single piece of composite materials. In the lower part of the structure reinforcements of aluminum, kevlar and honeycomb laminated carbon fiber were used.
This composite unibody structure replaced the Countach’s traditional tubular steel space frame chassis.

The body also extended forward to form a tank to which the front suspensions were attached.

Various body parts were also changed to composite ones, the front trunk lid, the rear engine cover and boot lid, the front spoiler, which used a simpler design and was a little lower than the original Countach and the wheelarches, which were now connected through sills with air-cooling vents for the rear brakes, while the fenders and doors used more conventional but still lightweight aluminum panels.

As the car was not painted it was very easy to distinguish the brushed aluminum colored metal components (also due to the poorly finished surface, which revealed the project’s experimental nature) from those in composite material, of matt black color.

The interior of the Evoluzione was bare and spartan with visible cables and controls, no cladding, no dashboard and only two panels in which numerous control instruments were inserted. The only luxury items were the white leather seats, which had been taken from a standard Countach.

Thanks to the extensive use of light-weight composites, the Evoluzione only weighed in at 980 kg, about 500 kg less than the QV. This, along with a blueprinted engine that now made 500 hp (493 bhp) and the redesigned body, which reduced the drag coefficient by about 10%, made the Evoluzione reach a top speed of 330 Km/h at the Nardò test track, with a 0-100 km/h time of just 4.0 s.

The transmision was the same used by the production models, though it was modified with a short throw shifter.

The Evoluzione was also used to test various new ideas that would later become standard Lamborghini features, including a 4WD drivetrain with variable torque split, an electronically controlled damping system with variable ride height, an ABS braking system and retractable, low-drag windshield wipers.

The First in the world

The Countach Evoluzione was the world’s first car made almost entirely out of carbonfibre and other composite materials.

Contemporary publications rumored about the possibility of a limited production run based on the Evoluzione, however it was determined that production of the Countach Evoluzione was not economically advantageous, mostly due to the costs of processing carbon fiber, but also because in the event of an accident the body would not be repairable.

As such, the car was subjected to a final test, a crash test against a barrier that caused its complete destruction.

The Legacy of the Evoluzione

23 years later Lamborghini launched the Sesto Elemento, which can be considered to be a sort of spiritual successor to the Evoluzione, since it shares the same principle of a car made entirely out of composite materials and with a total weight inferior to 1000kg.

Below, an image gallery of the Evoluzione, showing various stages of its development:

25 Years of Lamborghini

In 1988 Automobili Lamborghini S.p.a. celebrated its 25th Anniversary.
As a celebration, the factory was originally going to replace the Countach with an all-new model, but a series of financial and management difficulties prevented that from happening.
Instead, one more version of the Countach would be made.

The last Countach

The Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary was in fact a ‘new’ Countach, but to avoid new homologation for this model, Lamborghini used the QV’s chassis as a base.

A lot of changes

A Countach is composed by about 8000 parts and, for the Anniversary, about 3000 of said parts were modified or replaced.

The exterior sported considerable restyling done by Horacio Pagani, who incorporated several features that were derived from the Evoluzione prototype.

The rear air-box intake ducts were enlarged and extended to a more gradual incline further in-keeping with aerodynamic-streamlining, while the secondary pair of debossed ducts, originally situated further behind them, were brought forward and relocated directly on top, encompassing refashioned fins now running longitudinally rather than transversely. This allowed the airboxes, located behind the radiators, to be rotated from a transverse to a longitudinal position, allowing better airflow from the radiators out through the secondary fins.

Additionally, further reconstruction of an already modified engine-bay cover, from a concept consisting of dual-raised sections and tri-ducting, to one that embodies a centre-raised section incorporating dual-ducting become another feature.

Only a few items remained from the QV; the front spoiler/bumper was redesigned, now with extra cooling vents for the front brakes, and side skirts with cooling streaks for the rear brakes, similar to the ones mounted on the late 1988 QV models, were also mounted.

Another design change regarded the taillights, which became the same as on the ones used on U.S.-spec QV models, and a new rear bumper was incorporated; This eliminated the ugly black bumpers used on the same US-spec cars, although the massive front bumpers were however retained on US-spec cars, but these were now painted in the same color as the body.

The previous models’ massive rear wing was still offered as an optional, although this time many Anniversary owners ordered their car without it.

Most of the 25th Anniversary’s new body panels and the front lid were now made out of carbonfibre, just like on the Evoluzione prototype.

These design changes made the Countach look less aggressive and violent, and not everyone liked the new design. In particular, features such as the fin strakes within the primary rear-intake-ducts openings, which appeared to mimic the Ferrari Testarossa.

The most refined Countach of all

Mechanically, not much had changed from the previous QV model. The engine remained the same, with a power output of 455 bhp, although it now featured electronical ignition instead of carburators.

The space frame was also retained, but the suspension had to be slightly modified because of the new Pirelli P Zero tires replacing the aging P7R’s, now mounted on redesigned multi-piece OZ wheels.

These modifications, executed under the guidance of rally champion Sandro Munari, made the Anniversary much more stable and safer, completely different from the ‘normal’ Countach.

The interior was also redone. The seats became wider and now offered electrical adjustments of both the seat and the back, and the design of the door panels was modified. The side windows were now electrically powered and the air-conditioning was again made a standard feature.

An interesting option was the possibility to mount sport seats, even thinner than the original seats, gaining much needed room for both the driver and passenger, although with not much of an improvement.

The 25th Anniversary was built between 1988 and 1990 and was the last version of the Countach. Originally meant to be built in very limited numbers, to celebrate the factory’s 25th Anniversary, it turned out to be the most successful Countach model ever, with a total of 658 units made.

The last Countach ever made, a metallic silver 25th Anniversary with a light gray interior was built in 1990. This particular car was never sold, instead it was put in the Lamborghini museum in Sant’Agata Bolognese, next to the first Lamborghini ever built, the 350 GTV.

Below, an image gallery of a Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary (Credit: Bentley Gold Coast Auto Gallery) and a video (Credit: SUPERCARCLASSICS):

The Leonardo DaVinci of the car world

Horacio Raul Pagani is an Argentine-born Italian entrepreneur, founder and owner of Pagani Automobili. Pagani is of Italian origin and has Italian citizenship.

Pagani’s paternal grandfather emigrated to Argentina from Appiano Gentile at the end of the 19th century.

Son of a baker of Como origin, Horacio was born in the small town of Casilda, in Argentina, on November 10, 1955 , and starting from the age of 12 he began to build models of cars with makeshift materials.

Horacio had a passion for cars since he was a young boy, in particular he loved exotic supercars such as the Lamborghini Countach, Ferrari F40, DeTomaso Pantera, etc…, and his dream was to one day make his own supercar in Modena, Italy.

His career started around the age of 12, when he started building small car models with his own hands. Horacio’s strong will and determination allowed him to open a small shop where, by working on actual cars, he gained a lot of valuable craftmanship experience.
Not long afterwards, at the age of just 20, Horacio managed to build his own Formula 3 racecar, which raced in Argentina with the colors of the Renault team.

Thanks to that F3 racer, Horacio was noticed by none other less than legendary F1 driver Juan Manuel Fangio, who sent various letters of recommendation to manufacturers such as Ferrari, Lamborghini and Alfa Romeo.

As a result, Horacio started working for Automobili Lamborghini in 1983, where he played an important role in the creation of the Countach’s latest versions and the LM002 SUV, and later specialized in the use of composite materials and the processing of carbon fiber, and to do so he rented a shed and bought the necessary equipment thanks to a loan. He also worked with the design groups of the Lamborghini Diablo and the P140, a prototype for a Jalpa successor that unfortunately never entered production.

In 1991 he founded Modena Design in San Cesario sul Panaro, which which continues to make carbon fiber composites for Formula One cars and clients like Daimler, Ferrari and Aprilia. A year later, in 1992, he founded Pagani Automobili. He was not in Modena, as he had imagined as a boy, but he had managed to set up his atelier only twenty kilometers to the east.

For the following 7 years, Horacio developed his first true supercar, called the “Fangio F1” in honour of the man who helped him the most during his career.
When looking for an engine that could develop enough power to make the “Fangio” a true supercar, Fangio’s recommendation proved extremely valuable, and he found it in Mercedes-AMG, which made it possible for him to start production of his car.

Following Fangio’s death in 1995, and fearing his car wouldn’t have been worthy of such a name, Horacio decided to change the car’s name and a month before the car’s debut, after talking with his old friends from Argentina, he decided to call it the “Zonda“, in reference to an Argentinian air current as well as an Argentinian racetrack.

The Zonda debuted at the 1999 Geneva Motor Show, and took the world by storm. It was beautiful, it was fast, it was the realization of Horacio’s dream of building his own supercar.
The press was so impressed by the Zonda, that the term “supercar” was deemed insufficient to describe it. For that reason, the term “hypercar” was coined.

Development of the Zonda continued for the following years, and saw the birth of versions such as the C12, C12 S, F, Cinque and many others.

Over the years, Pagani grew as a car maker, but Horacio feared that the competition was in danger of causing the Zonda to age prematurely, and for that reason the development of an entirely new car begun in 2003.

Following a 8 years long development, the Pagani Huayra debuted at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show.
The car was inspired by the wind, and for that very reason the body was designed to be as aerodynamical as possible, and features active aerodynamics. The car’s name was inspired by Huayra-tata, a Quechua wind god.

The Huayra was acclaimed by critics and was named the Hypercar of the Year 2012 by Top Gear.
It is powered by a hand-built 6.0-litre twin turbo engine built by Mercedes’s AMG division, capable of developing over 720 bhp.

Just like its predecessor, the Huayra also saw a long line of special versions over the years, such as the Huayra BC and, more recently, the Roadster, as well as many custom made one-offs.

The latest evolution of the Huayra is the BC Roadster, presented a few days ago. It is an open top version of the previous Huayra BC, built in memory of Benny Caiola, Pagani’s first ever customer.

Thank you for reading this article! Raging Bulls will return soon with Issue N. 8! Don't miss it!